Scrapbooking… Creativity Runs In The Family!

with 7 Comments

by Jan Walker

Browsing through the Digital Scrapper Gallery recently, I came across a fascinating page posted by Forum member and Premier subscriber judyinsd. The page showcases her grandmother’s home, and is packed with photos, circa 1911. Wow!

by judyinsd

A hundred years ago, people were doing well to have photos taken of themselves and their families. But imagine the rare occasion, in those days, of having photographs made of the interior of someone’s home.

Judy’s grandmother made a picture album from those photos… kind of an early scrapbook… and Judy featured pages from the book on the layout she made. It was a great glimpse into the past and a fantastic inspiration for us to do just what her grandmother did.

Judy has now created a layout of her home today, to go with the page of her grandmother’s home:

by judyinsd

So, I’ll challenge all of you to get out the camera and go room-to-room in your home, taking photos of the way you live today, so that 100 years from now, future generations will sit and marvel at your forethought to preserve those memories.

And hey… don’t just stop at your homes. Why not get a photo of your car (and maybe the price of fuel at the gas station!); an image of the front page of your local newspaper (while we still have those!); a shot of yourself in your favorite outfit… anything that would chronicle the way you live today. Then, make a page or two that you can share with your grandkids… so they can share with their grandkids… and so on down the line.

Thanks, Judy, for the inspiration! By preserving your grandmother’s images for generations to come, and by documenting your own home, you’re carrying on a great tradition, and helping us to do the same.

7 Responses

  1. donnak
    | Reply

    What a great idea! Just after my mother passed away, I took pictures of her house before everything has to be moved and divided up between her five children. Now I know what to do with those pictures. Thanks for the inspiration.

  2. Barb
    | Reply

    This will be such a treasured album in years to come. Your composition is gorgeous and the papers you picked could not be better!

  3. ScrappyDigits
    | Reply

    Nice! These pages are such wonderful examples of how scrapbooking uses photos to keep memories alive and to preserve them for the future. Love them!

  4. Jan
    | Reply

    Bonnie, there’s still a LOT you an do to improve or restore old images. And sometimes the fix can be a really simple one, especially if it’s just a matter of fading, and there’s not a lot of staining, rips or tears. Here’s a Tip of the Week that will help you to fix up a fading photo: http://www.scrappersguide.com/tips_el/quick-fix-for-faded-photos-el/

    And Donna, I don’t have many pictures from generations past either, but the few I do have don’t really convey a sense of “place.” So I guess we’ll have to be the ones who begin the tradition of documenting our homes.

  5. Donna English
    | Reply

    I have some old pictures from my grandparents and would like to do the same thing. None of them are indoors pictures though. I have a lot of slides that my father took but a lot of them are landscape scenery but nothing telling me where it was taken. 🙁

  6. Bonnie
    | Reply

    What a wonderful page. It is so bright, clear and colorful. As soon as I finish my class I will try to do some of these great ideas. I just finished going thru 1800 slides, luckily I didn’t scan them all. Quality is not real good though. Old pictures I guess you can’t expect miracles.

  7. Linda Sattgast
    | Reply

    What a great idea, Jan! I’ve been taking photos of the rooms of my house now and then when they are particularly clean and orderly and the light is just right…but there is more I could do. Judy’s pages are inspiring!

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